Thoughts on World Cup Matches 1-5
Apparently it was overly ambitious to think I could blog for five consecutive days about why I love soccer so much. So scratch that. Now that we’re underway, here are my thoughts on each of the matches played thus far.
#1. South Africa 1-1 Mexico – I was planning on watching this game live but was then called in for an 8:00 Friday morning meeting. Super weak!
South Africa played an excellent strategy against Mexico in the opener. Recently the Mexicans have been playing very aggressively against quality opposition like England and Italy. By withdrawing into a defensive shell for the first thirty minutes the South Africans resisted the Aztec onslaught and caught them on the break with a classic counterattack. Siphiwe Tshabalala’s finish was clinical; no goalkeeper in the world could have stopped it and Tshabalala will probably earn a nice contract with a European club just for that goal.
As usual the Mexicans were too deliberate on the ball, especially in the final third of the field. Giovani Dos Santos had the right ideas but couldn’t do it all by himself.
#2. Uruguay 0-0 France – This was a dull affair. Effective World Cup teams are more than the sum of their parts and France were far, far less. With enough talent to win the tournament they labored to a scarcely deserved point. Patrice Evra was excellent and Jérémy Toulalan did well enough but the rest of it was dire. The French press is howling about Raymond Domenech starting players like Sidney Govou and Yoan Gourcuff when players like Thierry Henry and Florent Malouda are on the bench, and it was easy to see why.
#3. South Korea 2-0 Greece – Greece is terrible at soccer and Ji Sung Park is not. That is all.
#4. Argentina 1-0 Nigeria – The albiceleste look very, very good despite the solitary goal. Dirty bastard Gabriel “El Gringo” Heinze’s diving headed goal should make ESPN Sportcenter’s Top 10, Leo Messi was lively, Gonzalo Higuaín looked surprisingly like shit, and Nigeria were pedestrian throughout and were lucky not to lose 4-0.
#5. The main event. England 1-1 United States – Having citizenship of both the United Kingdom and the United States made this match difficult to watch. I found myself rooting more for England than for the United States in the early proceedings, but England were so poor that by the end I was hoping the 1-1 scoreline would hold. A great result for the US, who may consider themselves unlucky not to have taken all three points.
Some observations:
-Landon Donovan was excellent throughout and seems to be the only player at the World Cup so far who has figured out how to deliver crosses with the tricky new Adidas Jabulani ball. His free kicks and crosses from open play were very good; too bad Jozy Altidore and Oguchi Onyewu’s headers were so poor.
-Onyewu doesn’t appear to be running properly; he has a hitch in his stride that is going to lead to an injury. Totally exposed for England’s goal, he was much better in the second half with some timely interventions to deny England a go-ahead goal.
-England’s tactics were piss-poor. Despite having two of the best central midfielders in the world in Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, England defenders bypassed them at every opportunity and just whacked long balls towards Emile Heskey. Between the ball and the better organized defences that will come England’s way in the later rounds of the tournament, it would probably serve them well to practice playing the ball on the ground. With Gareth Barry expected back for Algeria on June 18th, Fabio Capello will be able to revert to playing Steven Gerrard on the left of midfield. I would like to see Jermain Defoe partering Rooney rather than Heskey or Crouch.
-As always, the US has no urgency or invention in the attacking third of the field. One of the few exceptions was when Altidore left Jamie Carragher in his wake and should have scored but ultimately scuffed his shot which was well saved by Robert Green and his friend Upright.
-Both goals came from atrocious defensive breakdowns. Both teams seemed scared to attack to much in the second half lest they be caught out on the counterattack. This revealed the managers’ attitudes that a draw would be a fine result.
Onward and upward. I have watched all five matches in sequence and aim to continue for as long as possible. Algeria – Slovenia will be interesting, here’s hoping for a 0-0 draw. Serbia look very good on paper and could be dark horses to win the tournament; I expect they will beat a weakened Ghana side. Finally, despite having some Bavarian blood I’ll be rooting for the Aussies to put one over on the German menace.
